159. Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus)

As the name suggests, Pallid Harriers are pretty ghostly - well the males at least. Look how pale this guy is! They have a similarly slim build to Montagu's Harrier but much more uniform plumage - no black bands on the wings, and a narrower wedge of black at the wingtips. The females look very similar to female Montagu's, but lack the black band at the base of the secondaries on the upperwings which Montagu's has, and have darker brown secondaries below. I had wanted to try painting at least one female from the harriers, but, er, I saw this photo and loved it so afraid that's not happened! Pallid Harriers are rare birds in Europe - they breed no further west than Romania and Ukraine, although occur on passage in parts of southeast Europe en route to the various bits of Africa and the Middle East that they spend their winters in. Habitat-wise they like agricultural land, grassland and marshes, steppe and semi-desert.

Pallid Harrier, ©Tarique Sani, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Pallid Harrier painting.

Darn it, if I'd got the eye in the right place this would be OK - it's too far back though!